Tobacco-cutter.



PATENTED JAN. 15, 1907.

N. DU BRUL.

TOBACCO CUTTER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.15, 1905.

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No. 841,236. PATENTED JAN. 15, 1907. V

N. DU BRUL. TOBACCO CUTTER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 15. 1905.

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PATENTED JAN. 15,1907.

' N. DU BRUL. TOBACCO 00mm. APPLICATION FILED 313.15. 1905.

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WITNESSES: I,

THE NORRIS PETERS co" WASHINGTON, n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 15, 1907.

Application filed February 15, 1905- Serial NO. 245,761.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known thatI, NAPoLEoNDU BRUL, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in TobaccoCutters, ofwhich. the following is a specification.

This invention relates to continuous-feed tobacco-cutters; and it hasfor one of its objects to" so mount the upper feed-rollers in such atobacco-cutter that the rollers will be independently self-adjusting, sothat ,the rollers in advance of the last roller, which are firstencountered by the tobacco, may yield without materially reducing theressure of the last roller adjacent to the kni e and said last rollermay adapt itself to the thickness of the body of tobacco and exertproper compression thereon without materially,,affecting the function ofthe rollers in advance of it, the arrangement thereby giving a positivewell-compressed feed of the tobacco.

A further object is to provide a continuous tobacco-cuttingmachinehaving a draw out, and especially a draw out with a knife that recedesfrom the shear-plate or mouth of the cutter.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following description,and all the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointedout in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of myinvention. Figs. 2 and 3 are respectively detail front and sideelevations of this embodiment of cutting mechanism. Figs. 4 and 5 arerespectively -a vertical section and a top plan of the feedingmechanism. Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9 are detail views of the feed-rollersmountings. Fig. 10 is a front elevation of another embodiment of thecutting mechanism; and Fig. 11 is a view, partly in section,illustrating the mounting of the knife shown in Fig. 10.

The means for imparting a continuous drive to'the feed-rolls and varyingthe speed of said rollsv relative to, the cutting stroke, therebyregulating the size of the cut, is preferably the same as described inmy previous application, Serial No. 228,543, and may be as follows: Abelt (not shown) is passed around tight and loose pulleys 1, mounted ona cranked drive-shaft 2 on the frame 3. The drive-shaft 2 carries afly-wheel 4 and a small pinion 5, removable to permit a change of thegear of the machine. This pinion 5 meshes with the larger pinion 6 of alow er or intermediate reducing gear journaled on spindle 7, adjustablein the swinging end of an arm 8, the other end of which is j ourn'aledon a roll-driving shaft 9, extending transversely of the frame 3. Theswinging arm 8 is held in various positions, depending on the size ofthe gear of the machine, by means of a slotted extension 10, throughwhich works a clamping-bolt 11. The smaller pinion 12 of the lowerreducing-gear meshes with a large gear 13 on one end of roll-drivingshaft 9 and communicates the rotation of the drive-shaft 2 to said shaft9. On the opposite end of roll-driving shaft 9 is a pinion 14, whichcommunicates motion, through pinions 14 14 and 14 on the shafts of lowerfeeding-rolls 15 and pinion 14 between inions 14 and 14, to the lowerfeeding-r01 s 15 to cause said rolls to rotate in the same direction andto rotate shaft 16, on one end of which the pinion 14 is mounted. Aroundthe first feedroll 15 passes a conveyer-belt 17, mounted in the bottomof the feed-trough 18 and passing around a roller 19, which is mountedin adjustable bearings at the extreme forward end of the trough 18.

Compressing the t0bacc0.The shaft 16 has mounted at its other end asmall pinion 20, which communicates motion to a gear 21, journaled at 22above the front feed-roller 15. A pair of swinging frames 23 arejournaled in axial alinement with the journal 22 and extend toward theoutlet of the machine, being connected at their outer ends by feedrollershaft 24. This feed-roller shaft carries the last feed-roller 25' of theupper series that is, the feed-roller nearest the cutting mechanism, tobe hereinafter describedand has journaled thereon a pair of members 26,constituting the upper front roll-carrying frame. In the members 26 arejournaled the front feed-rolls 27, which are geared to one another bypinions 27 and 27 b on their shafts and by pinion 27 interposed betweenthe pinions 27 a and 27 The swinging front feed-roller 27, adjacent thelast upper feedroller 25, is geared, by means of a pinion 27 to a pinion25 on the shaft 24, while the shaft 24 receives its power through themeshing of the pinion 25 on said shaft 24 with the gear 21. Thus it willbe seen that owing to the feed-roller 25 moving in an arc concentriowith the circumference of the gear 2 1 and carrying the upper frontfeed-rolls 27 are held together by tie-rods 28 and 28, rod 28 beingextended at one end to provide a journal for the pinion 27, whiletie-rod 28 is extended at both ends, each end suspending one of the twodepending links 29 and one end carrying in addition the pinion 27 Thelower ends of the links 29 are connected to intermediate points in anapproximately Y- shaped frame 30, which is pivoted'at 31 to the frame 3and has adjustable on its free end a weight 32, which acts on the wholeseries of upper rolls through the medium of the Y- shaped frame 30, thelinks 29, frame 26, and

levers 23. Obviously but one upper roll might be used in advance of thelast roll instead of two, though two such rolls are preferable formachines of larger capacity.

From the foregoing description of the compressing means it will beunderstood that thereis entire independence between the last roll andthe roll or rolls in advance thereof in their vertical self-adjustment,and the vertical yielding of either does not materially change thecompression of the other.

Cutting.-The tobacco is fed under compression by the upper and lowerfeed-rolls to the mouthpiece 33, which is provided with a stationaryshear-blade 34, over which is adapted for travel a knife 35. Theknife 35is clamped by bolts 36 within a knife-holder 37, which is adapted tomove obliquely within guides 38 on a frame 39, that is secured to theframe 3 on pivots 40, which permit the frame 39 to oscillate in front ofthe mouth 33. The oblique or shear movement of the knife 35 is impartedin the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 to 3 by means of a lever 41, which issecured at its lower end to the cranked ortion 42 of the drive-shaft 2,the

' lower en of the lever being bifurcated at 43 and ivoted to a sleeve44, journaled on the cran ed portion of the shaft. The upper end of thelever 41 is likewise bifurcated at 44 and fitted to the end 45 "of theknife-holder 37, which is caused :to-travel in an oblique direction byreason of a pair of links 46 and 47, the link 46 being pivoted at itsupper end 48 to the frame 39 and its lower end 49 to the holder 37,while the link 47 is pivoted at 50 to the frame 39 and at its lower endbetween the bifurcation 44 of the lever 41. In operation the rotation ofthe crank or drive shaft 2 causes the lower end of the lever 41 to takea vertical circular path. This draws downwardly on the knife-holder 35,which by reason of the links 46 and 47 moves in an oblique path, therebycausing the knife to give a draw out. The frame 39, being pivoted at 40,is caused by the circular movement of the lower end of the lever 41 tomove outwardly at its lower end at the instant that the to 11 theknife-holder 37 is mounted in the 'frame'39, as in the other embodiment,but

the link 47 is dispensed with and the knifeholder is extended at bothends and has connected to it at these points 44 the ends of a pair oflevers 41, which have ball-and-socket connection 44 with the drive-shaft2 by means of se arate cranks 42 The general operation 0 this embodimentis the same as set forth with relation to the other embodiment.

The draw cut as produced by the mechan ism herein describedembodiesespecial advantages in a tobacco-cutter. The cut is made mucheasier, it does not crush or pack the tobacco like a vertical cutnor-have the tendency to pull out the leaf as it is being out, there isnot so much waste, the cut tobacco ismore fluffy or loose as it fallsfrom the machine, and the cut is much cleaner.

4 Various changes within the scope of the appended claims may be madewithout departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim .as new therein, anddesire to secure by LettersPatent, is f 1. In a tobacco-cutting machine,a feeding mechanism comprising a series of compression-rolls and meansfor making these rolls self-adjusting abouttwo different centers.

2. 'In atobacco outting machine, a feeding mechanism comprising aplurality of compression-rolls in whichthe one last acting upon thetobacco is self-adjusting about a center fro'm'which it is driven and inwhich a primarycompression-roll is relatively self- 3. In atobacco-feeding mechanism, a plurality of independently and relativelyself- I adjusting rolls acting successively upon the tobacco.

4. In a. tobacco-cutting machine, a feeding final compression-roll.

5. In a tobacco-cutting machine, afeeding mechanism, embodying aswinging frame, a roll j ournaled thereon, a frame swinging on thefirst-mentioned frame, and rolls carried by the second frame.

jadjusting about the center of the compres i sion-roll last acting uponthe tobacco.

frames.

7. In a tobacco-cutting machine, the combination of a reciprocatingknife with a continuous feeding mechanism embodying a lower series ofrolls, and an upper series of rolls adjustable relatively to the lowerseries of rolls and to one another.

8. In a tobacco-cutting machine, the combination with a lower series ofrolls, of an upper series of rolls of which the one last acting on thetobacco is freely adjustable about a center and those first acting onthe tobacco are freely adjustable in an arc concentric with the axis of,and are geared to, the said roll last acting.

9. In a tobacco-cutting machine, a feeding mechanism embodying aswinging frame, a gear-wheel journaled on an axis in alinement with thepivot of the frame, a roll carried by the swinging frame and geared tosaid gearwheel, a second frame swung on the axis of said roll, and rollscarried by the second frame and geared to the first-mentioned roll.

10. In a tobacco-cutting machine, a feeding mechanism embodying aswinging frame, a gear-wheel journaled on an axis in alinement with thepivot of the frame, a roll carried by said swinging frame and geared tosaid gear-Wheel, a second frame swung on the axis of said roll, a rollor rolls carried by said second frame and geared to the first-mentionedroll and a weight acting on both swinging frames.

11. In a tobacco-cutting machine, a feeding mechanism embodying aswinging frame, a gear-wheel j ournaled on an axis in alinement with thepivot of the frame, a roll carried by said swinging frame and geared tosaid gear-wheel, a second frame swung on the axis of said roll, a rollor rolls carried by said second frame and geared to the first-mentionedroll and a weight connected to the second-named frame near its fulcrumon the first-named frame and thereby acting on both swinging frames 12.In a tobacco-cutter, the combination with the continuous feedingmechanism, of a knife and mechanism for causing the knife to make a drawout on its downstroke and to move away from the material in thedirection of its feed on its upstroke, so that the material may becontinuously fed.

13. In a tobaccocutter, the combination with the continuousfeedingmechanism, of a knife, and mechanism causing the knife to make a drawcut and to oscillate out of the way of the material in the direction ofits feed.

14. In a tobacco-cutter, the combination of an oscillatory frame, and aknife having reciprocating and draw-out movements on the frame.

15. In a tobacco-cutter, the combination of an oscillating frame, and aknife having a draw-cut movement on said frame.

16. In a tobacco-cutter, the combination of an oscillatory frame, and aknife having a reciprocating movement on the frame and a lever connectedat one end to the knife and at its other end to a part having a rotarymovement.

17. In a tobacco-cutter, an oscillatory frame, a knife-holder guided onthe frame, a swinging link connected to the frame and to theknife-holder, and mechanism for moving the knife and causing the frameto oscillate.

18. In a tobacco-cutter, an oscillatory frame, a knife-holder guided onthe frame, a swinging link connected at one end to the frame and theother end to the knife-holder, a lever connected at one end to theknifeholder, and mechanismcausing the other end of the lever to move ina circular path.

19. In a tobacco-cutter, an oscillatory frame, a knife-holder guided inan oblique path thereon, a lever connected at one end to theknife-holder, and mechanism causing the other end of the lever to travelin a circular path.

20. In a tobacco-cutter, an oscillatory frame, a knife-holder guided inan oblique path thereon, a lever connected at one end to theknife-holder and a crank-shaft connected to the other end of the lever.

21. A tobacco-cutter, comprising a frame, a crank-shaft journaledthereon, a lower series of feed-rolls, a reducing-gear connecting thecrank-shaft and the lower series of feedrolls, an upper series offeed-rolls geared to the lower series of feed-rolls and adjustablerelatively to the lower series of feed-rolls and to one another, anoscillatory frame mounted on the main frame near the mouth of the feed,

a knife-holder guided on said frame and a lever connected at one end tothe knife-holder and at its other end to the crank-shaft.

22. In a tobacco-cutter, the combination with a continuous-feedmechanism, of an oscillatory frame, and a knife having reciprocating anddraw-cut movements on and relative to said frame. a

23. In a tobacco-cutter, the combination with a continuous-feedmechanism, of an oscillating frame, and a knife having a drawcutmovement on and relative to said frame.

24. In a tobacco-cutting machine, the combination with a lower series ofrolls, of an upper series of rolls, of which the roll last acting on thetobacco is freely and automatically self-adjustable and those firstacting on the tobacco are adjustable in an arc concentric with the axisof the roll last acting.

25. In a tobacco-cutter, the combination of a frame, oscillating about afixed axis, and

I'IO

a knife having a reciprocating movement on The foregoing specificationsigned at Cinthe frame. h b cinnati, Ohio, this 4th day of January,1905.

26. In a tobacco cutter, t e com ination with a. continuous-feedmechanism, of a NAPOLEON DU L' 5 frame oscillating about a fixed axis,and a In presence of knife having a reciprocating movement on H.WHYRIOH, and relative tosaid frame. ,F. BROERMANQ

